In a wireless communication system, an indoor unit and an outdoor unit of a base station are typically located away from each other. For example, a base transceiver station (BTS) is generally the indoor unit located inside a building, and an antenna is the outdoor unit located outside above the ground on a rooftop. Usually, a RF signal generated and outputted from the indoor unit is transmitted to the outdoor unit via a cable, jumper and the like for transmission of the communication signal. When a malfunction or an error occurs within the wireless communication system, it may be difficult to locate or pinpoint where the malfunction or error occurred. Often times, it requires a technician to disassemble the transmission line and climb to the upper location to do on site measurements, which may be dangerous and risky.
In addition, a RF remote module being employed in a wireless communication system becomes more and more popular in order to improve system performance. Therefore, when a RF remote module experiences any problem, it is necessary to locate and evaluate the problem of the module.
In an existing base station of a wireless communication, an antenna is connected to an indoor unit of a base station via a feeder cable, and in the indoor unit, there is an antenna monitoring unit to monitor the performance of the antenna. In such a circumstance, when the antenna monitoring unit finds that there is something wrong, it is difficult to differentiate whether the antenna or the feeder cable is the source of error/malfunction, since the antenna is connected via the feeder cable and performance parameters of the antenna are monitored via the feeder cable. Similar to a defect in the antenna, a defect in the feeder cable may also dramatically change the measuring result in the antenna monitoring unit when measuring reflecting power of the antenna.